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Zed Shaw has Left Dropbox

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Re: Zed Shaw has Left Dropbox

#21

Post by keyist »

starkfist wrote: post #8
zedshaw wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it's not you, I do get asked to be a sysadmin quite often. I have no idea why. It's not something I'm good at. I did for a short time in college to pay tuition a decade ago. I don't enjoy it. I never apply for it. For some bizarre reason, people ask if I want to be a sysadmin out of the blue. Drives me crazy.

It's not that bizarre, you write software mainly used by systems administrators. I used to work with one of the guys who wrote apache, and now work with a guy who wrote most of one of the popular NOSQL engines. And they both work as systems administrators. Not "useradd" systems administrators (although they are technically in that part of the org chart) but more like what Google calls "SREs." Rather than explaining w…

what Google calls "SREs." Rather than explaining what it is, this guy's google groups post...

I liked OmniTI's description of a role akin to SRE and the progression through the web operations career path they identify: http://omniti.com/seeds/what-is-web-operations .

"This role is in no way fitting for failed developers, it is for developers/engineers that have outpaced their career path. One that has a deep understanding of how things work: a complete systemic view of general site architecture."

Re: Zed Shaw has Left Dropbox

#22

Post by DannoHung »

starkfist wrote: post #20
spudlyo wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That kind of programming to me is fun. The most boring type of programming possible in my opinion is front end web development.

Personally, I cannot stand the type of programming which is encapsulating a bunch of "BUSINESS LOGIC" in code. I.e. "apply this much tax unless we are in florida or new york, then apply this much. except on the day after christmas..." or even worse, "restrict these parts of the site to the accounting department, except for gary because he's in fiance, too" etc.

That's not so bad if you're given the freedom to not be a fucking idiot about it.

Re: Zed Shaw has Left Dropbox

#23

Post by pkaler »

zedshaw wrote: post #19
SlyShy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read the thread. What I wrote was unclear though, sorry. What I meant was, it's stupid that you'd have to do that, because people shouldn't be starting rumor mills in the first place.

Well, it's stupid but I learned the hard way if you don't shut down people who slander in the tech world then the rumor mongers take it to mean you're weak and the slanderers are right. Sucks, but the alternative is to give folks with no integrity a way to tear you down. In other words, there really is no higher ground in tech unless you're already rich.

We live in a world where PageRank is truth. Whatever shows up higher in Google is assumed to be true.

Re: Zed Shaw has Left Dropbox

#24

Post by zedshaw »

pavs wrote: post #11
zedshaw wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it's not you, I do get asked to be a sysadmin quite often. I have no idea why. It's not something I'm good at. I did for a short time in college to pay tuition a decade ago. I don't enjoy it. I never apply for it. For some bizarre reason, people ask if I want to be a sysadmin out of the blue. Drives me crazy.

Just curious, what would be your ideal job? Assuming you want to work for someone and not just on your own projects.

Right now, find a company doing something bad ass with HTTP and then make Mongrel2 blow their socks off. Then repeat it again and again until I've got something.

Either that, or getting a Ph.D. in Education.

Re: Zed Shaw has Left Dropbox

#27

Post by jey »

zedshaw wrote: post #5
jrockway wrote: post #3

My dream of having Zed come to an interview where the interviewers all have their feet up on the conference table is this much closer to coming true!

Oh that'd be funny as shit. Actually, I've gotten used to it. Seems to be just a damn stupid signifier that you're a start up guy.

Congrats on creating a new cultural tradition.

Re: Zed Shaw has Left Dropbox

#28

Post by jrockway »

bonsaitree wrote: post #12
jrockway wrote: post #3

My dream of having Zed come to an interview where the interviewers all have their feet up on the conference table is this much closer to coming true!

The aforementioned to be read in the voice of Bender.

"I'm gonna go make my own interview room. With blackjack. And hookers."

Re: Zed Shaw has Left Dropbox

#29

Post by nostrademons »

jrockway wrote: post #14
starkfist wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that bizarre, you write software mainly used by systems administrators. I used to work with one of the guys who wrote apache, and now work with a guy who wrote most of one of the popular NOSQL engines. And they both work as systems administrators. Not "useradd" systems administrators (although they are technically in that part of the org chart) but more like what Google calls "SREs." Rather than explaining w…

Google says something like that for every job. From what I know about SREs, the "programming" you do is basically shell scripts to automate sysadmin stuff. Programming, sure, but the most boring type possible.

Yeah, SREs don't do all that much hard-core programming, but they need a skill that's almost harder: the ability to quickly evaluate whether a change is likely to bring the system down or otherwise cause reliability problems. SREs get consulted very often by engineers for questions like "Do we have enough capacity to burn 15% more CPU for the next week?" or "Is this change likely to cause an unacceptable risk of serving bad pages to users?" They also do code & design reviews.

In that respect, the job description is pretty accurate. You do need a strong skillset in development, automation, high-level systems architecture, networking, statistics, and problem-solving to perform well as an SRE. You need to be able to think on your feet and evaluate the suggestions that engineers are throwing at you before somebody does something stupid, as well as the ability to figure out how to avoid having problems recur.

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